1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a developing apparatus and a contact-retracting method.
2. Related Art
In an image forming apparatus of using an electrophotographic method such as a printer and a copying machine, a photo conductor is exchanged in accordance with the life thereof. In addition, there is a case where a trouble is caused in the photo conductor. In such a case, there is also a need for exchanging. Therefore, in order to make the exchange of the photo conductor easy, in general, the photo conductor, and a function member that is arranged around the photo conductor such as an exposure unit and a developing unit are configured so as to brought in contact with or retract from each other.
In general, when the photo conductor and the developing unit are brought in contact with or retracted from each other, a developer or the like easily drops off from the developing unit. When for example the developer drops off to a light emitting portion of an exposure unit that exposes the photo conductor, the dropping-off is a main cause for generating an image defect.